Manager Post Morton

06/11/10: Manager fears that Steven Bell's season may be over

MATCH PICTURES
Jim McIntyre's disappointing day was compounded not just with the defeat, penalty decisions that went against but also with the injury to Steven Bell just 16 minutes into the match:-

"That's him, his season is over. Gerry Docherty our physio reckons that he has snapped his Achilles which is a huge blow for Steven and a massive blow for our Club. Anybody who has seen us will know what a big player he is for us and that is a bitter pill to swallow. We are devastated for Belly, absolutely devastated.

"As well as last season, this season he has probably been one of our top performers. We don't really have another player like him in the midfield area so it is going to prove a huge blow but it also opens the door for one or two of the others to try and force their way in and get themselves in the team. We are not thinking about that just now; we are thinking about how devastating a blow this is for Steven."

The Manager was disappointed with the decision to give Morton a soft penalty after what seemed to be a stonewaller at the other end:-

"We thought we should have had a penalty when David Graham was brought down by the goalkeeper. I don't know how he gave one and didn't give the other. I would need to see Calum Woods challenge again; he was over the boy but he went and won the header. The referee deemed that one to be a penalty but how he hasn't deemed ours to be a penalty when the goalkeeper has cleaned David Graham out then that's a hard one to understand. The referee was saying that it was an attempt at goal and the collision was inevitable - I don't see it like that. I have seen my player lift the ball over him, trying to score but been cleaned out so he had no chance of getting there.

"Some you get, some you don't, we will not worry about the referee, we will look at ourselves because I think after the goals we never did enough on the ball."

The Manager thought that his side started the first 20 minutes of the match really well and looked a real threat. Then having been on top the Pars lost a poor goal to give Morton a boost:-

"We have gifted another goal which is a concern. It was just an individual error unfortunately. The defender headed it totally the wrong way; it was a poor decision and we have been punished. You could visibly see the lift that gave Morton; we were the better side up until then; goals change games and we speak about how vital it is to get the first goal in these games. The league is that tight and there's not a lot between the teams.

"Morton showed how much that lifted them. They had their tails up after that and started knocking it about. Then they got the second goal and all of a sudden we had a mountain to climb. Our effort was fantastic, we kept going and battling away but we just didn't have that cutting edge.

"We said at half time that we'd have to show a bit of character; go and get the next goal and see how they react to losing a goal. Even though we scored late on, you could see that they were rattled. I just don't think that we did enough in an attacking sense. That's been few and far between this season and that re-iterated how difficult a league it is when you see both Raith and Falkirk losing today as well."

Steven Bell's injury meant that 19 year old Ryan Thomson came off the bench to play in his first league match for Dunfermline, the Manager added:-

"I thought he did OK, it is hard to come on and pick the pace of the game up as a substitute. You could see that he has definitely got something - young Thommo - he has a wee bit of dig about him. He was so unlucky not to score because he had a fantastic effort. He scored a great goal during the week against Celtic in the reserves and he was unlucky not to cap his debut with a goal today."